Submissions

We are interested in flash fiction, short stories up to 6,000 words, or serials broken into segments of 6,000 words or less.

For short stories and flash fiction, we currently accept only science fiction, not high fantasy (wizards and elves) or urban fantasy (vampires and werewolves).   This may change in the future, so check this page again.

For serials, we are interested in science fiction for Xenos, and also accept high fantasy, urban fantasy, and other genres (western, crime, thriller, adventure) for a related project.

Examples of out-of-this-world science fiction we’d like to see:

  • Aliens with unusual biologies
  • AIs and robots interpreting their instructions in unexpected ways
  • First colonists on a new world
  • Xenoarchaeologists discovering alien artifacts or ruins
  • Clones (the story shouldn’t be a clone – it should have clones in it)
  • Genetic engineering
  • Galaxy-spanning empires
  • Thousand-ship spacefleets clashing in epic battles
  • Multi-generation ships traveling between the stars
  • Underwater science fiction (even if it’s on Earth, we think of the ocean as an alien environment)
  • Domed cities underwater, or on airless or toxic-atmosphere worlds
  • Space pirates, smugglers, and crime syndicates
  • Law enforcement agencies hunting down space pirates, smugglers, and crime syndicates

We will look at short stories set on modern-day Earth, or some time in Earth’s history, if they involve an out-of-this-world technology or a visit by aliens.

Please don’t send us:

  • Poetry
  • Romance
  • Erotica
  • Family dramas where the only science fiction is a robot maid doing the dishes.  Science fiction needs to be an integral part of the story.
  • A story which tries to make a political point about the modern-day United States (or Europe).  We might agree with you or we might not, but we won’t publish your story.
  • Fan fiction.  It’s cool to pal around with James T. Kirk, but we can’t publish the story.
  • A dystopia that isn’t dependent on some futuristic technology.  Using current tech, we don’t think you can write a crazier or more evil dystopia than Kim Jong Un.
  • Multiple stories at once.  Send us one story, see what we think of it, then you can send another one later.
  • Stories under consideration elsewhere.  You can always send the story to us later if those other guys don’t want it.  Also, don’t send a story elsewhere if we are considering it.  If you want to withdraw a story from our consideration, just email us.

What we pay:

Announcement coming later

Serials may pay at a lower rate per word than flash fiction and short stories.

We may ask authors to answer interview questions via email.  There is no additional payment for these interviews, but authors will be permitted to promote other writing or projects.  We may also ask for a short bio to post on our blog, with links to the author’s social media accounts.

How to submit:

Announcement coming later

For flash fiction and short stories, the subject line of your email should be your story’s word count (rounded to the nearest 100, without a comma), followed by a dash, followed by your story’s title.

Example short story subject line:

3600 – Children of the Sky

For serials, the subject line of your email should be the word “Serial”, followed by a dash, followed by your serial’s title.

Example serial subject line:

Serial – A Tale of Two Space Stations

Submissions Format:

Please follow these formatting instructions.  If you don’t, we’ll ask that you re-submit, and your re-submission will move to the back of the line.

  • We accept submissions in .PDF form only.
  • Do NOT double-space your document.
  • Use left-aligned text, not fully justified.
  • Use Courier New font, 18 point.  Yes, 18 point.  Some of us read on tablets.
  • Do NOT place anything other than the title at the start of your document.  You may include a bio at the END of the document, but we only want to know this information AFTER we’ve read your story.

For serials, send us only the first episode, but also send us a synopsis/outline of the rest of the serial.  Make sure your synopsis/outline gives details concerning the opening and closing scene of each episode.

Our Response:

You will receive one of four responses:

  1. Reformat Request – If you didn’t follow our guidelines, we will ask you to re-format and re-submit your story.  Your re-submission will start again at the back of the line.
  2. Rejection – Your story just wasn’t for us, or we’ve recently read too many similar stories.  We may or may not have time to let you know the specific reason for the rejection.  You are welcome to submit another story at this point.
  3. Acceptance – We want to buy your story.
  4. Conditional Acceptance – We want to buy your story, but are requesting that you clean up the spelling/grammar, or remove a particular scene (or character, or something else) because we don’t feel that it adds anything to the story.  We want to keep stories short for our readers’ convenience.

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